


Music

by Cat (ActualBuckyBarnes)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Angst, Bands, Everyone Is Gay, Except Louise, F/M, Fluff, If You Squint - Freeform, M/M, Music, Serious fluff, Soulmates, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, literally just fluff, she's special
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 14:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8059840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualBuckyBarnes/pseuds/Cat
Summary: Okay so I really just wanted to write a cute soulmate au. That's it. This is an adorable soulmate au with mostly fluff.Everyone is born into this world deaf- that is, until age eighteen. At eighteen, something rather magical- excuse the cliche- happens. You can hear what your soulmate is hearing- except, it's just background noise until you meet them. So what happens when Dan can hear certain noises perfectly? Specifically, the band Aesop's Fables?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this turns out well, here we go!

Dan loved music, even before he could hear it. People would tease him for loving the strong drumbeats and baselines that he could feel in his ears- almost as if he could hear. Dan figured it was the closest thing to hearing he could possibly have in his early teenage years (not to mention, he liked learning the lyrics and guessing where they'd go as opposed to the drumbeats).

So it would only make sense that the first thing he'd do when he got his hearing would be to listen to it.

Louise and Tyler thought he was insane. Louise had found her soulmate- Matt- soon after she'd gotten her hearing, but Tyler was still looking as his sounds were annoyingly vague and he was having trouble figuring out where the _fuck_ his soulmate was, because apparently he was really far away.

 _I need to take a break_ , Dan signed to his friends, about ten minutes to his birthday. He'd become pretty good at reading lips, but he preferred to sign as opposed to talking. He stood up and paced around the room some, hands on the back of his head, breathing pretty heavily. Tyler was playing a game on his phone to pass the time and Louise was looking concerned for Dan.

 _Calm down_ , Louise signed back, offering her arms out for a hug, which Dan gratefully accepted. What if he didn't have a soulmate? What if he was destined to be deaf for the rest of his life? What if he was naturally deaf anyway? Was there even a difference? Was that possible?

Louise broke the hug to roll her eyes and sign, _I can hear you thinking. Stop it._ To which Dan immediately started to sulk.

Dan stared at the clock. _6:25 pm_ , it glared back. Five minutes.

Four minutes.

Three.

Two.

One.

Dan closed his eyes at the clock his 6:30, the sounds slamming into him like a bag of bricks. His eyes snapped back open and he jolted.

"I know the feeling," Tyler sighed pocketing his phone. Dan stared, wide-eyed at Tyler. Dan soaked in his voice. Even though it sounded like Tyler was speaking through water, Dan could tell that his voice was cheerful and flamboyant. Louise's sounded soothing and happy.

It was overwhelming. The sounds bounced around in Dan's head- the fish tank gurgled and the door squeaked and the cat, Cheshire, scratched on her post and Dan needed a moment to breathe.

"Um-" Dan tried out his voice, which sounded _weird_ compared to theirs, "Hi?"

"Dude, your voice is fine," Tyler said, "It took me a while to get the hang of speaking too."

Dan plugged his phone into the speaker in his room and turned on _Truce_ by Twenty One Pilots. The chords ricocheted through Dan's body just like the other noises had, and he swayed with the gentle beat. He didn't realize he was crying, but it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard.

Louise wrapped Dan up in a hug and rubbed circles into his back as the next song on the playlist began- _Like an Ocean_ by _Aesop's Fables_ \- and those chords felt a bit different, but still beautiful all the same. No, it was something else that threw Dan off.

"I- I can hear those," Again, Dan flinched at how odd his voice sounded compared to Tyler's and Louise's- it was around 18 that people usually started speech therapy, and Speech was a class offered at some high-schools and most colleges.

"Of course, silly," Louise rolled her eyes.

"No," Dan frowned, "They sound _different_."

"What do you mean, different?" Tyler chimed in from the couch.

"The drums, sound _different_ ," Dan noticed. While the lead singer's voice and the guitar he played still sounded like they were behind a veil, or that they were just underwater, Dan could hear the drums clearly, like they were being played right next to his ear.

"They sound clear," Dan said. Suddenly, Tyler was in a frenzy to get his phone out and Google the band.

"It says that two of the members- lead singer and the bassist- have soulmates, the drummer, Phil Lester, does not." Tyler stared at his phone, then glanced back at Dan, then back at his phone.

Dan just stood there in shock.

.o0o.

Meanwhile, Phil was having a _really_ rough day. The reporters didn't seem to stop asking about the whole soulmate deal (not many people were 22 and still deaf), to the point where, instead of actually answering, Phil just flipped them off and stormed out of the interview room. At least they'd had enough decency to ask in sign instead of speaking. He'd gotten orange juice on his show outfit before he'd even fully woken up, and his dog Benny scratched him on the leg and he'd had to clean blood off of his outfit too, and his manager called in sick and Chris was being an asshole- which was not appreciated today- and Phil had seemingly just woken up on the wrong side of the bed that day.

"Mate, you know that's gonna show up in the papers tomorrow," PJ said, taking a drink of water as Phil sat down in the car and crossed his hands, brooding.

Wait.

 _PJ, say that again,_ Phil signed urgently.

"You're... gonna... be in the paper for being rude?" PJ said, unsure.

"I can hear you," Phil gasped. Suddenly, noise slammed into him. The van door closed, Chris opened a can of soda, PJ popped the gum he was chewing- Phil would apologize apologize to the reporter later, right now they were going to celebrate. Suddenly, everything that had happened to Phil seemed minuscule and not worth a second of Phil's time.

.o0o.

The sounds of Panic! At the Disco rang through Phil's brain. He knew it was what his soulmate was listening to, and he danced around to it as he crossed the kitchen.

"You'll dance to anything, you'll dance to anything!" Phil sang, his voice completely out of key. Chris made a face and PJ sighed.

"We're going to get you singing lessons as soon as we possibly can," PJ said, leaning into Chris's chest. The two had heard noises, clear as day, as soon as Chris had turned 18- and their speech therapy had gone well, to say the least. As far as Phil could tell, PJ's voice had been described as melancholy and smooth, and Chris added low harmonies that the audience seemed to love. Phil was their friend beforehand, and had started taking drum lessons as a result, and he was a pretty good drummer, if he did say so himself. Chris and PJ had chosen to keep their relationship private, and there was some pretty weird speculation as to who Chris and PJ's soulmates were (they liked to scroll through and laugh at all the "they're obviously straight leave them alone!!1!" posts).

Phil made himself toast and jumped when the toaster went off, like usual. Chris said something Phil couldn't quite make out while Phil was putting peanut butter on the toast- Phil knew he'd still have to read lips to completely understand what someone was saying.

"Come again?" Phil said, turning around. Chris muttered "Kinky" in response, to which PJ slapped his arm jokingly.

"I said, do you think your soulmate is a fan? Also, they're four years younger than you, which is kinda weird," Chris reiterated.

"I can't be sure whether or not my soulmate is a fan, and it is kinda weird now that you say it out loud," Phil said. The more he spoke, the more he got used to his voice. There seemed to be a lot of laughter from the newly-named Soulmate Line, as Phil called it.

Oh boy, it was going to be a _long_ tour of Britain. The next place they'd be going to would be Manchester, and the arena had been sold out. They'd be meeting around thirty people while they were there.

.o0o.

Dan couldn't believe Louise had splurged on money to get them tickets to see _Aesop's Fables_. Dan figured- from what limited knowledge he'd had of sounds- that they were some sort of mixture between Twenty One Pilots and Melanie Martinez, with lyrical subjects and melodies matching both styles pretty well. Tyler was pretty excited as well, and demanded they bring rainbow flags for "reasons".

"Trust me, this is important," Tyler hissed as he forced the flags into the hands of Dan and Louise before they'd started walking. The arena was only about a twenty minute walk from Dan and Tyler's flat, and Louise had walked a bit further to their flat.

"Why?" Dan asked.

"Well, if our soulmates can hear us, and they're going to the concert too, then they'll know where to find us," Tyler said proudly. They continued to talk about the rainbow flags in loud voices until they'd reached the venue.

To be fair, there was nothing flashier than bringing rainbow flags to a concert.

.o0o.

"One of his friends said that they're gonna bring rainbow flags to the concert," Phil stressed. He'd been pretty well-taught by Chris and PJ in the past couple of days from Brighton to Manchester, but now that Phil was standing just off-stage, it was stressful as fuck.

Phil stepped out on stage to the loudest noise he'd ever heard in his life- cheering and screaming and wolf-whistles. For him- for him and PJ and Chris. The opening song, _Clouds_ would be much cheerier than the rest of the songs they played, and they had something special for after the song.

PJ began to sing, "Maybe it's just my mind, but sometimes I find, that reality is the worst waste of time."

And on the second verse, Chris joined in. Phil didn't have that much importance in this song (it was heavy on the ukulele and not so much on the drums), but it did give him time to stress about what would happen after the song. He'd managed to spot the three rainbow flags in the crowd pretty easily, and their plan was to call the three up on stage and publicly address the issue- well, not so much an issue as an opportunity.

"We're gonna call someone up on stage!" PJ said into the microphone, and cheers erupted again, "How about you three wonderful people, the ones with the flags?"

.o0o.

Dan was going up on stage. Dan was going _up on stage_ to hear their voices up close and personal and he could barely breathe.

"Now," The lead singer, PJ, continued to speak, "I've heard from a certain band member that his soulmate was planning on bringing a rainbow flag to the Manchester concert, and that his friend's soulmate knew this too. So, which one of you three is Phil's soulmate?"

Dan's jaw dropped and he raised a shaking hand. Phil's eyes lit up.

"I believe this deserves something special, don't you guys?" PJ asked to a roaring crowd, "Why don't you three stay up here until the end of the show?"

This was officially better than Dan's eighteenth birthday. The band had a crew member bring out three chairs for Dan, Tyler, and Louise, who couldn't really believe themselves.

.o0o.

After the show, Tyler was really kind of frustrated. He was the first of the three of them to hear, and the last to hear _clearly_. And, okay, maybe he was just a little jealous. But, like, just a little.

"So, flag-boy, what's your name?" Chris asked Dan backstage.

"Dan," Dan's voice wavered as he spoke. Phil's head perked up again at the words, and Phil nearly sprinted over to Dan.

"Hi," Phil grinned, and... Phil was drawing closer and then he kissed Dan. The sounds slammed into Dan again, but this time... they were clear. Dan pulled back and Phil immediately looked apologetic and spoke quickly, "I'm so sorry I didn't ask if you wanted to kiss are you okay?"

"Yeah," Dan said, "It's just... the noises are finally clear."

And then Phil realized, he could hear the squeak of the wheels on a cart, he could hear chairs scraping as they were put away, he could hear the distinct sounds of the cymbals on the drum-set as they were placed into the tour van.

"Do you want to kiss again?" Phil asked, blue eyes filled with concern.

"Fuck yes," Dan said, and the two met for another kiss.

.o0o.

Tyler was poked on the shoulder and turned around to see a tall and thin figure.

"Uh, hi," Tyler raised an eyebrow at the opening singer, Troye Sivan.

"Hi," He said back, poking his tongue out, "I'm Troye, I was the idiot behind the microphone before these idiots were behind the microphone-"

"Hey," Chris shot back, looping his arm around PJ's shoulders.

"I- heard your friends talking about the rainbow flags," Troye's grin got wider and Tyler's eyes widened at the _sounds_. People were rushing and Tyler could hear the brushing of the fabric on their jeans and he could hear the strings on the bass guitar ring out as it was put up and he could hear _everything_.

"How about we show them how to actually kiss?" Tyler asked, and Troye leaned down to kiss the shorter man.

Louise rolled her eyes and took out her phone, texting Matt.

.o0o.

It seemed that Phil didn't mind answering questions about soulmates any longer. After Phil's semi-successful coming out, Chris and PJ followed in his footsteps, kissing during a concert. Chris and PJ's coming out was a 'tiny bit' (PJ's words, not Phil's) overshadowed by Twenty One Pilots releasing a new album. The general consensus about it was "well that explains all the homoerotic tension in music videos".

The flag became a part of the band, draped over the bass drum whenever Phil played. Phil's voice seemed to divide fans into pre-Phil and post-Phil eras- like most major changes to bands do.

And Troye eventually became really well-known, and a year later, he posted a video to his YouTube channel (usually saved for music videos) a video of him coming out. This, unlike Chris and PJ's coming out, got a ton of press-coverage and, although Troye certainly hadn't planned it that way, boosted his popularity a _lot_.

The after-math of the whole thing made their heads ring for a while, but after that they settled into a routine. Dan would accompany Phil on tours (as long as there was WiFi, Dan was hunky-dory), and Tyler would be waiting for Troye at the end of a long month of travel. They Skyped a lot.

And they were happy. Or, I suppose, just as happy as people are supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> that was wild.
> 
> anyway, if you wanted to talk to me on Tumblr or just scream about Dan and Phil in my inbox, here you go: http://bucky-barnes-and-cats.tumblr.com/


End file.
